HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Staff in many Huntsville's schools are scrambling to get caught up after the system in which they create student schedules and classroom assignments went down for several days.

Keith Ward, a spokesman for Huntsville City Schools, said the district's I-Now software system came back online late Monday. Schedules that had already been partially entered into the system have to be completed.

"Now they're working to catch back up and get those things corrected," Ward said. "It's not a convenient time for something like that to have happened, but it's not something we really have any control over."

Ward explained that the state Education Department mandates all local school districts use the same software for data collection to make it easier for the information to be sent to Montgomery.

The Mobile-based company that created I-Now, Software Technology Inc., has been the company under contract with the state for several years. I-Now is an upgrade that is more in-depth than the company's previous software, Ward said.

Implementation began last year, but Huntsville did not get the upgrade until this summer.

"We began training in mid-July," Ward said. "They trained staff from each school, and those staff in turn went and trained other staff from those schools."

Geraldine Tibbs, a spokeswoman for Madison County Schools, said the county district did not experience the same problems Huntsville has. Not this year, at least.

Madison County was set up on the I-Now system last year, Tibbs said.

"We went through some of those same kinds of pains," Tibbs said. "But we're in good shape now."

Madison City Schools is also in its second year with I-Now, said Katrina Allen, technology coordinator for the district.

Allen said adjusting to a new student information management system is always challenging and that the district has had obstacles getting it fully implemented.

"We feel that we are getting closer to understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the program," Allen said.

Other school districts across the state are also having problems with the I-Now system. The Press-Register reported late last month that Mobile County's schools were having issues inputting their master schedules for students.

Though Mobile schools used the software last year, this is the first time they have used it for scheduling students' classes. Report cards were delayed by about a week last year because of issues with the software, the paper reported.